James Krier, the Earl Warren DeLano Professor of Law, has been named the 2012 recipient of the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize from the Property Rights Project at William & Mary Law School.

Lynda Butler, Chancellor Professor of Law at William & Mary and director of the Property Rights Project, said Prof. Krier was an "outstanding choice" for the prize.

"[Jim] has been a leading property scholar for decades and is known to many a law student and professor for his groundbreaking casebook Property," she said. "What makes Jim's scholarship special is his ability to bring so many different disciplinary perspectives to bear on a property issue or problem, and he always does so in an engaging and thought-provoking way."

Prof. Krier teaches courses on contracts, property, trusts and estates, behavioral law and economics, and pollution policy. His research interests are primarily in the fields of property and law and economics. He has published articles in the Harvard Law Review, the Supreme Court Economic Review, and the UCLA Law Review, and is the author or co-author of several books, including Environmental Law and Policy, Pollution and Policy, and Property (7th ed.), cited for "bringing a modern interdisciplinary approach to the teaching of property," according to University of Arizona Law School Professor Carol Rose, a 2010 Brigham-Kanner Prize recipient.

Prof. Krier said he is both delighted and surprised to receive the award.

"Looking at the list of winners over the last eight years since the prize was established, one would see that it is heady company to join, and thus one would not expect to be asked," he said. "This makes the fact that I was asked very special to me; it's a wonderful endorsement of my work over the years."

As an awardee, Prof. Krier joins esteemed recipients from Harvard, Yale, and the University of Chicago, as well as Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Michigan Law's Margaret Jane Radin, the Henry King Ransom Professor of Law, who was honored in 2007.

"The [award] lets me join with my colleague Margaret Jane, who won the prize several years ago in recognition of her remarkable contributions to normative property theory," Prof. Krier noted. "Michigan Law is the only school in the nation to have among its faculty two winners of the prize. So I think the news is nice not just for me, but for all of us."

Prof. Krier will accept the prize during the Ninth Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference in October. Both the prize and the conference are named in recognition of Toby Prince Brigham and Gideon Kanner, leaders in the field of private property rights.